Rep. Nancy Todd, D-Aurora, comforts House Minority Leader Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, after the civil unions bill he co-sponsored was killed late Tuesday. House Speaker Frank McNulty called a recess to prevent Senate Bill 2 from coming to the floor, making it impossible to call a final vote on the measure today. Five Republicans had said they would support the measure, meaning that if it had been heard, it likely would have passed.

A new group called Fight Back Colorado will target lawmakers in November who helped kill civil unions during the legislative session.

The organization has not announced which lawmakers it will go after but treasurer Roger Sherman of Denver said it will be “smart and methodical” about where it spends its money.

The group is modeled on successful efforts in New York to elect and defeat lawmakers based on their gay-rights stances, that led to the New York legislature passing a bill allowing gays to marry, Sherman said.

He said that wealthy gay rights advocate Tim Gill of Denver is expected to contribute to fundraising.

The Colorado civil-unions bill passed the Democratic-controlled Senate this year, and had enough votes to pass the Republican-controlled House, but Speaker Frank McNulty and other GOP leaders refused to call it up for a vote on the second-to-last-day of the session.

The bill died a dramatic death, with supporters in the gallery chanting “Shame on you” as the clock ran out.

McNulty lives in Highlands Ranch, which is deeply Republican. Democrats would have a hard time unseating him. The same goes for other House Republicans who voted against the bill in committee, including Reps. Bob Gardner of Colorado Springs and Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling.

But Brad Clark, director of One Colorado, the state’s largest gay-rights group, said the effort isn’t just about going after leadership and committee members who voted against civil unions.

“A lot of folks never got to vote on this, but they allowed their leadership to do this so they had a hand in civil unions being killed,” he said.

Another civil-unions bill introduced in a special session died in the first GOP committee that heard the measure.

Sherman said lawmakers killed civil unions despite public support for equality.

But Sonnenberg said what the public really cares about is jobs and the economy, not social issues. And he said it was Democrats who brought the legislature to a standstill with a “nuclear” motion on May 8 to try to force civil unions to be heard before other bills.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that whistleblower protections passed by Congress in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 apply only when those alleging corporate misdeeds bring their information to the government.

A prominent white nationalist is suing Twitter for banning his accounts at a time when social networks are trying to crack down on hateful and abusive content without appearing to censor unpopular opinions.

The social media service Twitter is believed to have suspended thousands of accounts for being automated bots, or for other policy violations, drawing outcry from fringe conservative media figures who lost followers in the move.